Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 43-minute introduction, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen reframes a common misconception: Buddha’s extraordinary powers—mind-reading, miracles, perfect insight—are not unique gifts but the inevitable result of disciplined meditation, achievable by anyone. He explains how Buddha serves as a source of refuge by teaching the path (not by magically removing suffering), establishes that mind’s essential nature is clarity—ignorance and other apparent limitations are temporary defilements, not permanent flaws—and explains why human existence uniquely suits spiritual practice. He outlines the three wisdoms (listening, contemplation, and meditation) and concludes with a guided breathing meditation. For newcomers to Buddhist philosophy.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 IBP no date.mp3
UUID: 61c4d980-fd40-4fcd-bb13-b227fdafd301
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1983 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 43.4 minutes
Words: ~5,015
Gentlemen, so tonight, will try to talk about very much general introductory things about Buddhism based on how to start the how to say how to start the Buddhism and what is the actual cause and what one is trying to get out of it. Buddhism was taught and founded by lord Buddha, and he he was born he was born about year two thousand and five hundreds ago. And now, I mean, we will talk on the basis what he taught as Buddhism. Yeah. Definitely.
Yeah. Mhmm. Normally how do say? Normally, whenever we study some writings or some books, and we have to know or find out the author’s life. And and we have to find out the validity of the authors.
So similar to that patience, you know, I mean, I will try to talk a little bit about the Buddhist, his how do say it? A life story or biography, something like that. Since this course is, you know, focused upon the very much introductory about Buddhism, so I will try to cover everything of Buddhisms in a in a how to say, in a very short style, which is maybe quite easy to understand. So in Buddhism Buddhism, it is said that the Buddha has got certain qualities certain qualities such as, you know, such as a psychic power or such as, you know, reading the minds of other peoples and or and the powers of performing miracles and so forth. Oscar.
Yeah. One of the qualities of the Buddha could be sort of said as, you know, five five superpower or something like that. Yeah. The first is, you know, sort of, how to say, able to ability of seeing the things and, you know, yeah, such as seeing as a long distance or and and I’m sorry. And such as power of reading the mind of other peoples, Yeah.
Things like that. And the the power of, I’d say, the power of reading or understanding the existence of reincarnations or the or the past lives of these lifetimes? So the main sort of quality out of this is the uncontaminated power of seeing the reality. The reason, you see, the reason why I talked about the some sort of qualities or quality or the excellences of the Buddha is that because this quality is not something that the Buddha personally owns. Rather, this sort of quality can be achieved by everyone or every sentient beings.
And and these powers or these qualities that Buddha possess is the outcome or the result of a result of his own hard work, such as meditating on a meditating strong concentrations, which brings out the which brings out the ultimate which brings out the such quality within the mind. So yeah. Mhmm. That thing, isn’t it? As we I said that the the the quality of, you know, quality quality of seeing the reality is something, you know, more important and is something which is hard to achieve.
So, you know, so there are few qualities of the Buddhist. Perhaps you might have become already familiar with this because you may be doing lots of reading about the Buddhism. I think so. The power of, you know, sort of the power of the performing miracles of the Buddha is is that sort of power which has been, you know, brought through strong meditations of concentrations. And in a way, I mean, this as it how do you call this the power, you know, such as performing miracles, you know, such as, you know, flying or things like that.
And this power is, you know, sort of brought out of brought through meditation or his own hard work. The person the person or the Buddha, you know, who sort of possess such a quality was born, you know, as a prince. And and by becoming, you know, sort of by big how do say? By practicing later on, he became as become you know, he became known as Śākyamūni or lord Buddha or lord Buddha. Yeah.
Yeah. That is. Somewhat sort of introductions about the person or author or the person who found Buddhism. So, generally, according to the Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist tradition, so the Buddha means, you know, persons who becomes alike or who person who possesses that sort of quality or understanding. The future in the future, if someone how does someone practices properly and if he if he or she becomes the Buddha, then she or he will be called as as person who possesses such kind of qualities.
So according to Buddhisms, the Buddha or the person who possesses that sort of understanding and that sort of a quality is considered to be the source of refuge or considered as jewels or jewels means, you know, the source of refuge. That person is, you know, as a, how to say, source of refuge in terms of teacher or in terms of Buddha himself. The Buddhism practitioner has to first of all find out or know a person like Buddha who is the source of his understanding Yeah. All this knowledge. Since according to Buddhism, we believe that the Buddha is the source of refuge.
So now we have to know that what is the style or what is the manner of granting the refuge that we are trying to seek or get from him. So as we said in the beginning that the quality, understanding, knowledge that the Buddha possessed or achieved as the goal of his as the goal of his spirituality is not something that was given by some sort of, you know, other supernatural being. It’s rather is the product or the outcome of of his own hard work. So and he is we said, according to the Buddhism, he is the source of Buddha is the source of refuge. So since he is the source of refuge, then he must grant refuge to the people who are seeking.
So now the manner of, you know, granting the refuge of Buddha according to Buddhist tradition or Buddhist philosophy is is not something that Buddha come down and, you know, pick some or free someone from his problems. Buddha himself said that and said that Buddha cannot cannot, how to say, cannot take the suffering of people by his hand. And now he can transfer his realization or his understanding to the people. Yeah. That’s what he said.
Yeah. So it means that so the way of, you know, the way of the way of Buddha’s helping to the people is not that, you know, is not that he comes down and takes your suffering away from you. And or now, you know, he he come down and and give his understanding or, you know, transplant his understanding or realization into you. So then Buddha said that the way of his the way of his helping to to other people or other people or or other sentient being is by showing the reality or by showing the truth. So it means that it means that it means that, you know, Buddha, you see, even though he has got that sort of powers such as performing miracles, still he cannot come down and give his understanding or transfer his understanding or his power into someone else and whereby he make he makes other people or other sentient being like himself.
So the way of his the the way of or the manner of, you know, Buddha’s granting help is that he shows the people he tells the people that what sort of, you know, method he he he has chosen as this means to, you know, achieve those sort of qualities or, you know, or the state of mind which is free from all problems and all sufferings. So and that’s how normally Buddha helps other people, and and that is the meaning of, you know, that Buddha is the source of help. The way of, you know, his help is by teaching the people, by showing the people right path and right means to achieve ultimate state of, you know, freedom from the suffering and the problem and so forth. Most of the things are happening. So now you see, the actual actual help or actual protector of yourself is, in actual fact, is you, nobody else.
So when we we said that Buddha is protector or he is the source of source of help or source of refuge, so now the the actual, you know, actual source of refuge or the help is that, you know, Buddha gave the teaching. He he shows the people or the other sentient beings that the the teachings or the right path or right means or right techniques to how to sort of, you know, make oneself free from one’s own problem by understanding the reality or the nature of one’s own mind and whereby achieves the state of mind which is free from all problems and suffering that nobody wishes for. And by so now what is the path? The path or the what’s the technique is such as developing the compassion or loving kindness or more more understanding towards other people and that sort of thing. So by doing or by meditating compassion and so forth, then you achieves the state of the mind or you achieves the tranquility of the mind or that sort of in the mental quality, which is actual source of source of your source of refuge or source of your your source of help or source of protections against the problem, suffering, misery that we are experiencing now.
So so whatever this whatever the quality or the level you receive or you attain through practicing or through applying the techniques and the path that Buddha has shown you, and that is the actual source of protection, and that is the the real help. According to the Buddhisms, there are three there are three sources of refuge. The first, as we said, teacher for this instance as the Buddha himself. And the second, the actual source, is the teaching or the method or the path that everyone is trying to apply. So now the third source of refuge is someone who has already experienced or who has already achieved that sort of, you know, mental quality or that sort of, you know, states of the mind through practicing the the means that Buddha or the teacher has shown.
So and that is also that person is considered to be the, you know, one source. Or the persons or spiritual community, it means that the person, you know, who are or your friend who are trying to, you know, who are trying to or who are actually engaged in that sort of method or techniques to achieve the state of the mind or, yeah, or the state of the mind, which is free from all the problems or the sufferings. You see? And those friends are also called as the source of refuge. It means, you know, who helps you, who encourages you to, you know, to do or to practice the the path which has been shown by the Buddha or the teacher.
The source of the third source of refuge, such as, you know, we say the friend or the person who’s actually done that sort of, you know, practice. So So here, we don’t have to really misunderstand the means of source of refuge or friend. So it means that the person who has already done something, then you can look at that and you know, you think that whatever you want to do is something achievable. It’s not something that cannot be achieved. You see, because you can see the other person has achieved that sort of thing, what you want to achieve by doing it.
So, therefore, other person can be a source of encouragement or source of your or source of inspirations. So in that in in that respect, according to Buddhism, it is called as the source of refuge because in act in actual fact, that person is helping you in the form of, you know, producing some kind of inspirations for you to actually get onto the business. The health. Yeah. That sort of thing is very important to actually achieve what you want to achieve.
For instance and I I mean, I find this too very helpful. When I saw some of my friends who are actually doing the practice very nicely and they achieved some sort of, you know, some sort of result. So and I find that very encouraging. So, anyway, that is the real meaning of, you know, the source, called as the source of refuge. That means as we said that, you know Very simple.
Encouraging, you know, sort of that the meaning of the source of refuge in terms of your spiritual friend is, you know, because they encourage you and you they help you, and that is the meaning. So now now we have have sort of, you know, basic idea of, you know, basic idea of the source of refuge in terms of Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist idea. So now we said, you know, as a Buddha himself and the spiritual friend and the actual technique or the actual teaching or actual Dharma. So so now either what we have to get from here is that that, you know, by looking at those spiritually, you know, or highly spiritually, you know, realized being in terms of Buddhist practice, they also, you know, by following, by working, they achieve that sort of state. And it is not that Buddha has, you know, had some kind of special favor for that person and made him.
No. That’s sort of a highly realized being. So in another route, they also practice and become you know, achieve that sort of a quality. And the quality and the power that Buddha has got is also not that we cannot achieve. So it is also that if you try, if you practice the teaching or the method that Buddha has shown, then we also can achieve the the state or the quality that Buddha has achieved.
So in a way, we also have a, you know, equal chance of becoming like Buddha himself provided we try. Yeah. So now, you know, when we talk about the some kind of qualities, understanding of the Buddha, we find it very hard to believe that we can also achieve that sort of thing, or we find it some sort of or we cannot believe that, you know, we can also become like Buddha himself, But it is not. We can also become like Buddha himself. So the first reason that according to Buddhism, as that everybody can achieve the state of Buddhahood is that we have got the basic potential of the mind to become like buddha himself.
It is not sort of divided for the human being only. It’s all sentient beings. All sentient beings have, you know, the actual nature of Buddhahood in their mind. Mhmm. Okay.
So according to according to Buddhisms, at the moment, we see when we look at and when we try to check the mind of all people, we find the different levels of understanding of the mind. Some people have a very strong control of of the mind. Some people have a great understanding, great knowledge, and some people don’t have. So and some people are completely sort of, you know, stupid. They don’t know anything.
So from that point of view, there are some differences. So according to Buddhism, the actual nature of the mind regardless of, you know, regardless of temporarily highly qualified or completely stupid is the, you know, is the basic, how to say, basic cognitive nature or the basic has got the basic sense of clarity. So in a way the nature of the mind is the sense of clarity. Yeah. Regardless of, you know, regardless of different levels of understanding or different levels of, you know, levels of look of the mind, The actual nature of the mind is clarity.
And every mind has got is or every the nature of every mind is the sense of or basic sense of clarity or a cognitive nature, clear light. So but the reason you see the reason there’s differences amongst the mind such as some people have more sort of intelligence or some people are less intelligent and some people are stupid is is due to the temporary temporary defiling emotional afflictions such as ignorance and so forth has has temporarily impedes that basic clarity of the mind. So Buddha said that the nature of the mind is a clear light, and the ignorance and so forth are the temporary defilement which could be completely gotten rid of provided one tries. As we said that the nature of the mind is clear light, and the nature of the mind is not defiled with ignorance, anger, and so forth, you know, other emotional afflictions. So this has been sort of, according to Buddhism, exemplified such as the nature of the sky or the space.
Space is not defiled by the black clouds and so forth. When the clouds is, how to say, gone, then the nature of the space, you know, shines or comes forward. And similarly, when there’s a tarnish over the gold, and that tarnish is not the nature of the gold. When that tarnish is cleansed off, the nature of the gold shines. So similarly, the mind, the nature of the mind is the clear light, and it is the sense of intelligence.
However, temporarily, it has been clouded by the emotional affliction such as ignorance, anger, and so forth. So so these are not the permanent nature or the permanent things which permanently clouds that basic sense of clarity of the mind, they are very much temporary. For instance, if somebody is completely ignorant about something at that time, the person is completely blanking out, knows nothing. However, when somebody comes along and try to tell or teach that person, you know, saying that this is not this and this is that, and it should be in this way and that way. When you when somebody teaches you like that, that time, you understand, oh, that’s right.
And you, from there on, you are not you are not ignorant about that thing or about the subject anymore. You see? If how to say? If the ignorance is the nature of the the mind, you see? If your ignorance of that particular subject is the nature of the mind and not the temporary things, then it is impossible, you know, to make you not ignorant about the similar subject.
So that is according to Buddhism as one reason to say that these are not the nature of the mind. The mind can be cleansed off or mind can be trained to such a ultimate state, which such as omniscient and so forth. Okay. Yeah. It’s too early.
So, I mean, this is the sort of, you crux of the whole philosophy of Buddhism, you see. The whole idea of the Buddhism or whole practice of Buddhism, you know, stems from the idea that the mind is, that the nature of the mind is the the sense of clarity or sense of intelligence or clear light is it is not naturally defiled, such as, you know, ignorant or or other mental other emotional afflictions. So so now now, after having, you know, understood this point, now the next, things comes is, you know, how one can, you know, one can get rid of those temporary defilements and what is the techniques and what is the methods or what is the path through which one can bring out that basic sense of intelligence, which is clear light into full action as a means to to, you know, help oneself and and also to help other people, other human beings. To that point, so to do or to practice the techniques, first of all, we have to know or we have to how to say? Wait a minute.
Sorry. I see. So the next point is that, you know, such sort of understanding is basically understood by the human beings, you see, human beings. So now in the Buddhism, it says that the human beings have a more chance of, you know, chance of materializing such things. So the reason, first of all, the human beings, how to say, human beings’ body or the very existence of a human being is so conducive to do or to carry out such experiments and to reach to the ultimate conclusions of cleansing or bringing out the basic awakened state of the mind.
Understanding so and applying the method accordingly is is a very how to say? It is something that an entire sentient being cannot do stir away. To do so, one one must have to be well equipped in terms of facilities to do so. And as a method or as a path to do so, there are different techniques and paths and understanding such as concentrations and meditations, meditation upon concentrations and so forth, and developing wisdoms and developing compassion and so forth. So these are the paths to do so.
Therefore and this thing could be, you know, how to say, or to do so, the human body or the human very existence of human body is very, very helpful and and it is a fundamental requirement, you know, to do such thing at this time. Paths or the techniques that has been shown by Buddha in terms of teaching Buddhism. So now to check or to experiment or to understand or to realize that whether such thing is possibility for oneself, one needs or one requires the wisdom, you know, wisdom to discern or to check upon. The wisdom plays a very important role role in terms of or in the in the in the realizing such such goal of spirituality in terms of practicing Buddhism. So the wisdom is divided into three.
You know, the wisdom gained through listening to the teaching or listening and wisdom gained through contemplations and wisdom gained through meditations, you see. So these three are the ways of achieving the wisdom. And these three does not have to necessarily sound as something very spirituality or something very spiritual. And these three things are normally in terms of worldly life, very important. In order to achieve the ultimate, you know, state of ultimate goal of spirituality in terms of practice of Buddhism, we need the wisdom.
So the first wisdom we can develop, you know, through listening. You see, through listening. And normally, the understanding or the knowledge we achieve we achieve through listening. You know? If someone has got some kind of knowledge or information, he passes on to you.
He tells you this and that, and you learn that, and you achieve some kind of, you know, understanding. That’s right. And you know or you learn, and that is exactly similar things you need need to reach that sort of a goal. First, you have to listen to the teachings or you listen to the the people, and you gain the information of information of knowledge. Now wisdom gained through listening is act an actual fact.
It’s not a sort of, you know, big thing to understand. And that’s how we normally do when we study or when we go to anywhere to study. We learn how to say? We listen to the information or knowledge that somebody somebody is passing on to you. And therefore, one day, you learn a lot of things or you you possess a lot of knowledge.
You know, that thing that thing. Mhmm. And we learn, you see, we learn through listening. We learn through listening, and we we know the ideas of other peoples. We know the informations that other people possess through, listening.
You see? So therefore, one of the, you know, Tibetan teacher said that that the listening process is fundamental to develop the human’s understanding or knowledge. Without this process, it is impossible to, you know, grow the human’s, you know, knowledge or understanding if one does not, you know, listen to somebody’s, how to say, knowledge or information, then one cannot never, how to say, build up one’s understanding or knowledge. So the teacher said that the listening process is, how to say, somewhat like a, you know, somewhat like electric electrical cord through the main power to the bulb. You see, when somebody tells you this and that, then there is a sparkling in your ignorance with things which you don’t know, and it is like a a lightening the things which you lightening or clearing the ignorance about the things which don’t understand.
So that clears up. So I’m so I’m this listening process is very important. So so being a human, you see, being a human is the best chance to do such thing to its fullest strength. Yeah. Through contemplation is that after having learned, after having listened so many information or knowledge, then you contemplate onto them.
So you you do lot of contemplations about whole thing, then you learn something extra. You gain some new interpretation of whole thing. That’s how you improve one thing. So all these process are improving the quality of mind or bringing out the ultimate, how to say, the nature of the mind. Okay.
After having listened, after having contemplated, then you gain something. So then what you do is you do the meditations. You do the, you know, you do the intense meditations. You know, after having learned the whole process for understanding, you know, what is right and what’s wrong, you see, how to bring out that the nature of the mind into the full action, how to say, swing. So then after having known the fact or the path or the method or the techniques, you see, then you do meditation.
You you you work hard. You work with your mind. See? Then how to say it? You bring out, you know, the the the quality of the mind in a sequence.
So and that sort of thing is the wisdom gained through meditations. Yes. Yeah. So these three wisdoms are very important very important to improve the quality of the mind. In another word, to bring out or to improve our mind to its fullest strength, which is the basic sense of intelligence.
So and therefore, according to Buddhism that the human beings have got the best chance of doing so or materializing this thing into reality reality. Because as we said that the three types of the wisdoms are very important to do such thing. So if you think properly, unlike to other sentient beings, we can do this. This is quite practical, you see. We can do this.
We have the mindfulness how to say? We have the mindfulness to, you know, to grasp the things in our mind. We can remember them. We can keep this sort of thing. So we have got that sort of powers if we wanted to do.
Wisdom is you know, the wisdom helps us to bring out all these informations or the techniques, you know, to how to improve the quality of the mind. Yeah. The wisdom plays the role of acquiring the knowledges. You see, knowledges and and the mindfulness plays the role of keeping them. How do you say?
The the wisdom, you see, wisdom plays as the role of acquiring the knowledges and techniques and discerning or making sure that these are top quality or whatever. After having gained the information or the knowledge through wisdom and mindfulness keeps them. So mindfulness keeps the keeps the knowledge or the information you gain in terms of practicing and so forth. Then, so when you have when that mindfulness holds them, then you are able to, you know, bring out or you can do the practice of concentration or you can concentrate more. So in that way, you bring out the, you know, you bring or you improve the quality of the mind.
So when we so when we think from this point of things that which we possess, so so so that makes us, you know, aware that we can do something like that. Buddhism, the main reason that we can also achieve, you know, that sort of qualities. Very brief. You know? And now now what next things what we will discuss is okay.
We sort of talked about the possibility or the the tools what we have got in terms of realizing that sort of goals. So next thing we will discuss is what is the actual techniques or what is the actual methods you know through which we can achieve the ultimate goal of spirituality in terms of practicing As in the whole thing is geared towards introductions about the whole things, so let’s do some kind of meditations. And so we try to, you know, sort of try to by recognizing the mind and placing them onto the breathing, you see, we try to how to say it, you know, try to calm down the mind. For short while, we will do some kind of breathing meditation, means watching the breath. You see, When you use to take the breath in or inhale, so you just follow that breath, you know, and just follow after that and try to, you know, sort of aware of that.
And as this sort of you exhale or take the breath out, you follow very gently towards that. So we will do it in a few rounds, you know, so, you know, in and out sort of thing. And we also try to be aware of the counts, something like that. So we do it for a short while.